IIT-Kharagpur forms expert panel to assess mental health challenges on campus
Kolkata: A 10-member external independent committee comprising psychiatrists, educationists, counsellors, alumni, legal experts, and police professionals will assess the factors affecting the mental health and well-being of IIT-Kharagpur students, faculty, and staff.
It will also identify challenges such as inadequate resources, administrative shortfalls, the academic environment, and other areas that hinder the resolution of mental health issues on campus. The committee will suggest measures to improve the mental health ecosystem of the campus.TOI reported on April 29 that the mother and brother of Aniket Walkar wrote to acting director Amit Patra, seeking an independent probe into the circumstances leading to Aniket's death. They urged authorities to find out the reasons behind the large number of suicides on the IIT-Kgp campus. Following this, the authorities decided to form an expert independent committee, which will submit its report within three months.Dean of student affairs Bhargab Maitra said: "An associate dean of students welfare will be the convenor of the committee. At first, we thought of keeping representatives from all stakeholders, like faculty members and students, in the committee, but the committee was becoming too large to work effectively. Therefore, we kept the external members in the committee who will interact with all the stakeholders of the Institute and take their inputs and views in specific areas."In a press statement issued on Saturday, the institute said, "The committee will assess the factors (primary, secondary, or tertiary) that are affecting the mental health and well-being of students, faculty, and staff of the institute. The committee will also identify the key challenges (such as inadequate resources, administrative shortfalls, academic environment, but not limited to) that hinder the resolution of mental health issues on campus. The committee will take stock of initiatives that are in place to address such issues and recommend further measures that can bolster the mental health ecosystem of students, staff, and faculty in the IIT Kharagpur campus," read the statement.Acting Director Amit Patra earlier said that the committee will be formed on the lines of IIT-Delhi. "At the level of the institution, we are taking steps to contain the situation. But there could be shortcomings in our institutional mechanism. So we want the 10-member committee to give its report containing the suggestions that we can work on to prevent the loss of lives," Patra said on Saturday.IIT-Kharagpur witnessed two back-to-back deaths in a fortnight. Fourth-year ocean engineering and naval architecture student Aniket Walkar was found hanging in his room at J C Bose Hostel on April 20, and another third-year civil engineering student, Mohammad Asif Qamar, was found hanging in his room in the Madan Mohan Malaviya Hall on May 4. Qamar's death is also the third death in a semester, the fourth death in less than a year, and the ninth death in five years that the premier institute witnessed.IIT-Kharagpur's decision to form an independent experts' panel gains significance following the Supreme Court's March 24 directive to set up a National Task Force to examine the rising number of suicides at education institutes. Founder of Global IIT Alumni Support Group Dheeraj Singh, an alumnus of the Kanpur campus, said, "We welcome the Committee constitution, though sadly there is no mention of recent suicides and terms are vaguely defined. A committee is only as strong as its willingness to confront uncomfortable truths. IIT Kharagpur's move is long overdue, but without student voices, transparent processes, and urgent interim measures, this risks becoming another bureaucratic exercise. Key findings must be transparently shared as a public good."
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